Late May 2016 distractions

Love watching what's for dinner in Japan. So healthy! All the interesting names and different ways of making things. 


Wonderful spontaneous singing in Split, Croatia on New Year's Eve (starts at 0:25)


Always loved the fairy stories with little elf helpers, shoemakers. 

Miyagawa (Makuzu) Kōzan, Kōro (incense burner). Porcelain, 11 x 12 x 14 cm. Japan, 19th-20th century, Meiji-Taishō period.

Amusingly mischievous, slightly mean illustrations. "Flower Children" by Elizabeth Gordon.
The whole book is online here.

A 1970's ring by the jeweler, Paul Flato

I want to come with you!!

Little Thumbelina 

The artist, 

Jan van Kessel the Younger, illustrated his name in creepy crawlies.

The exquisitely beautiful art of gasoline rainbows. 

Image via BOBBIECOUGHLIN 

Image by Anselan Photography

Abstract ~ study of oil & water, photographer Karen Keogh

Great interactive, detailed map of NYC buildings not conforming to the present zoning laws, too tall, too commercial, taking up too much space.

40 Percent of the Buildings in Manhattan Could Not Be Built Today

Occupations of persons from Panama Papers

Shin-en (Calm),1992; plate; porcelain with vivid colored glaze (yôsai) Tokuda Yasokichi III (1933–2009). More of his art here.

July 20th 2013. Ahhh, summertime is here.

Ahhh, summertime is here. What a joy. A time of light, heat, sunshine, open windows, water melon, summer storms, enjoying white crumpled sheets, wearing less clothing, eating less and lighter, savoring breezes, flapping curtains, a sense of spacious ease, silly blockbuster movies and visits to the sea.

Enjoying the art of Karen Hollingsworth.

Visualizing the infinite beauty of Pi and other numbers  - Via Everlasting Blort

Some likable, gentle art by Tang Chiew Ling, a graphic designer in Malaysia.

The Periodic Table of Videos with each element being described.


Coming Home by Karen Hollingsworth

Unwind by Karen Hollingsworth

Reconnecting by Karen Hollingsworth

Love this.Such a charming stop motion video of fireworks of beads. Worth waiting for the grand finale at the end.

Connected by Karen Hollingsworth

Huh, what an oddly likable thing. Calling a dolphin using a comb.

A lovely corner of this beautiful planet, the Venice of the Netherlands, a village without roads. "Giethoorn is a village in the Dutch province of Overijssel. It's called "Venice of the Netherlands." In the old part of the village, there were no roads (nowadays there is a cycling path), and all transport was done by water over one of the many canals. The lakes in Giethoorn were formed by peat unearthing."

A short vignette of Oba-Chan. An 85 year old Japanese farmer who tends to her land all by herself. Serene, intimate and inspiring.

OBA-CHAN from Mackenzie Sheppard on Vimeo.

Oh, this is cool. 

Animal Planet LIVE

It's a whole bunch of live cams that one can watch all kinds of creatures, live.

Living on the edge.The person sitting on that ledge is Alex Honnold. He’s been proclaimed the best free soloist (i.e., climbs without ropes) in the world. 

*wipes tears of laughter. Love these.

Huh, who knew. Japanese black hot dogs. 

Aww, a cute little story. A Vietnamese soccer fan runs after a bus of visiting Arsenal Club players in Hanoi, Viet Nam, so that the team members end up inviting him on the bus, brag about his sexy sixpack and cheer him on. Warmly friendly.

View Point by Karen Hollingsworth

A puppy that looks like a dandelion, attacking a dandelion.

A raccoon stealing some cats' food, dipping it into water for gravy and running away like a true bandit.

Air Mail by Karen Hollingsworth

Goat does a little Parkour move

Kids watching a weird looking experiment, burning Ammonium dichromate and Mercury (II) thiocyanate. At one point many of them shout "Kraken!" Fun all the way to the end.

Night Owl by Karen Hollingsworth

It's the full moon tonight, the first one of Spring 2013

It's the full moon tonight

Moon Magick

Going all out on the tambourine





Bake A Cake Inside An Egg


Interesting to check out all the expensive stuff, the rich people's CraigsList is called
JamesEdition

Something interesting to think about:
How do you think you'd react if you met yourself?




So cool. Mapping the connections artists had with others.
MOMA has this cool website where one can click on an artist's name and see the names of people with whom they were connected.




My Tibetan teacher, Geshe Ngawang Dhargey made me memorize this sentence in Tibetan:
གོམས་ན་སླ་བར་མི་འགྱུར་བའི། །དངོས་དེ་གང་ཡང་ཡོད་མ་ཡིན།
Transliterated it says: 
gom na la war ming gyur way ngo day gang yang yeu ma yin.
It means, basically: There is nothing that does not become easy with familiarity.
It is from one of my favorite Buddhist texts, the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra, written by Shantideva about 700 AD.


Some vintage illustrations and ads from hprints

Henri Matisse 1943 Jazz, Le Cheval, L'Ecuyère, Le Clown

                                                      Pavel Tchelitchew

Pavel Tchelitchew

Pavel Tchelitchew

Ruth and Henri collected Pavel's work during his lifetime and after.

Pavel Tchelitchew

at work in his studio

All of these paintings hung in their apartment in the Dakota

where they famously entertained.

Hmmm. My sympathy to the daughter, Shelley. I can only imagine what kind of painful life she endured.

When Ruth Ford, the late actress and wife of Hollywood star Zachary Scott, died last year at age 98, she left behind two apartments at the storied Dakota building at 1 West 72nd Street — to her Nepalese butler. Her will, accepted last month in the Surrogate’s Court in Manhattan, revealed that with the exception of her clothing and costume jewelry, Ford’s entire, $8.4 million estate has been turned over not to her daughter, Shelley Scott, or to either of her two grandchildren, but to Indra Tamang, the butler, cook and caretaker whom she employed for more than 30 years. 

In South Asia fish traps are woven out of bamboo. When they are taken to market to sell on bicycle they look like this

Three bicycles loaded with bamboo fish traps leave Tat Vien village in Vietnam's northern province of Hung Yen.